Archive for the ‘A look into my life’ Category
Update 10/14/10: I decided that I am no longer going to use the Lycosa. Even with the new model (MT10) that Razer sent me I still experience the same issues with the keys randomly dying and/or ghost sticking on me. I've got the latest drivers for Windows 7 64bit and nothing helps. I've come to the conclusion that it's not the keyboard itself but the horribly crappy drivers for the Lycosa. I'll still purchase other Razer products but as far as their keyboard line goes: hell no.
A few weeks I wrote about how I was disappointed with Razer and their Lycosa. I was holding off on buying a new keyboard when I ended up receiving a message from cultofrazer on my Youtube account. Hilmar 'Razer|Water' Hahn, a Product Evangelist at Razer, handles the Razer Lycosa and contacted me after seeing my blog post about the issues I've been having. He wanted to make it up to me and renew the relationship. As a result he wanted to send me a replacement Razer Lycosa and send me a free Razer Orca as he thought it would be perfect for me.
Needless to say I was extremely grateful to see that a Razer employee has gone out of his way to ensure that I am once again a satisfied customer! This positive response from them definitely guarantees that I will no doubt continue using and purchasing Razer products. In fact I'm finally going to replace my poor, dirty, worn out Goliathis for a new Goliathus Fragged Control Edition surface pad... Now if only they'd release their damn Onza controller that I've been waiting on for eons!
Tags: cultofrazer, lycosa, orca, razer
Posted in A look into my life | 3 Comments »
Last year I was on the lookout for a new keyboard and having already been using Razer products (Razer Abyssus and a Razer Goliathus), I decided to take a gander at their keyboards.
I went with the Razer Lycosa keyboard. I wanted something with laptop-style keys that would be quieter and of course the backlight was a plus. Unfortunately for me, I didn't read up on any reviews on this product at all. I just went blind into the purchase as I was already familiar with Razer.
Razer Lycosa
The first few couple of months were fine; I used the keyboard on a daily basis for hours at a time. After awhile though I noticed that the occasional time a key would not respond (eg: the letter 'g' would not respond) and unplugging the USB cord would 'reset' it. This happened so seldom that I never thought anything of it. However, after awhile it turned into more than just a key here and there. Eventually the touch screen to change light settings (WSAD, all keys lit, off) would randomly stop responding and various keys would be 'stuck' despite not having even touched them.
It has gotten to the point where I would unplug the USB cord for my keyboard every few hours. A couple of months ago I finally researched a bit on the product and found various articles that this was a common problem with the Lycosa. Lycosa's with serials that started at MT0803, MT0802, MT0801, and MT07 were those that were affected however Razer stated that "were limited to a small batch of customers" and since the problem was 'so small' no recall was necessary. My Lycosa starts with an MT09 serial number and apparently I should not be affected--but I am!
I finally decided to contact Razer last night as I was tired of putting up with the poor reliability of the Lycosa. I received a reply within a few hours asking for more details on the purchase. And finally around 10PM last night I received a response that they would not offer me an RMA on the Lycosa due to my purchase having only a 90 day warranty on it from November 2009 to January 2010. WHAT?!
The main article I read on the issue was from Tomshardware.com "Razer Responds to Lycosa KB Issue"
"Frick also mentioned that the problem was small enough that there wasn't any recall performed, and that customers with affected serial numbers can get their boards replaced free of charge."
So just because my serial isn't specifically listed as affected yet those with MT09 keyboards DO have this issue, I'm screwed no matter what. I just think it's poor that Razer knows of this issue yet has done nothing about it in the three years it's actually been present. The sad thing is that the MT09's are obviously affected because looking around online will yield tons of posts about the MT09 being affected just as well. I think that they really should have immediately taken my keyboard for an RMA despite the serial being MT09 and the warranty being up--especially when they've even admitted to the problem and stated that they would replace the boards free of charge.
I was really looking forward to continuing on being a loyal Razer customer. I've been waiting for the Razer Onza to release and after this issue, I'm not even sure if I want to continue using Razer's products. Between the issue STILL being present and Razer failing to replace the obviously defective product, I'm already looking at picking up a Logitech Illuminated keyboard and a Xtrac pads for future mouse/surface pads.
Logitech Illuminated Keyboard
Tags: keyboards, logitech, lycosa, mt09, razer, xtrac
Posted in A look into my life | 10 Comments »
The last time I had any pets in my life was when I was living in Louisville, KY for a few years. During that time I had Sadie, a white boxer; Wicket a german sheperd/husky mix; and Molly, a mix puppy.. no clue what her breed was. Anyway, Sadie I had for a few months until I gave her to a friend's family to take care of; Wicket went to another friend that was looking for the same breed.. Molly was unfortunately given away to my ex's brother's girlfriend.. without my permission. I had just moved out of the apartment and he agreed to take care of her for a few weeks while I got settled into my place. Unfortunately he ended up giving Molly away instead seeing as though he was the world's biggest douchebag.
Since 2006 I haven't had any kind of pets in my life. It's just been my obsession with pugs growing larger than life. Pugs on my birthday cards, cards to other people, stuffed animal pugs, pug statues, pug jewelry.. If it has a pug on it you can be assured that I either own it or at one point wanted it. Last year while I was in the hospital, my mom decided to agree that I could get a dog although we didn't have any time frame in mind. I did agree that it would be after I was able to walk.. November came around and I didn't really think about a dog. February came by and there was a news story on a puppy mill raid that had a bunch of pugs in there. Unfortunately the animals were not being put up for adoption as the judge ruled against it. May came by and I was HOPING that for my birthday I would be surprised with being able to get a dog. I had an inkling of doubt but I fooled myself as I was given a card that had a little PAWS print with a note saying it was time I get a dog!
I looked through all listings for shelters, rescues and stores for a pug. The closest Pug rescue was in northern Illinois and majority of the Pugs were 7-8 years old, half-blind and would require someone with the finances to take care of their major ailments. Looking at rescues in other states were not an option. The Kentuckiana Pug Rescue required that you lived in the area as they did a home check.. they had a large selection of pugs too! When I was able to find pugs in my area, they were mixed breeds--Pug w/chihuahua, Pug w/German Sheperd, Pug w/ Beagle, Pug w/ Greyhound (this was an UGLY mix).. So I made the decision to hold off on a pug. I know, it was a rather shocking decision to everyone as they all felt I should wait.. But I had discussed that it would be best to get a family dog right now and in a few months if I'm able to find a Pug, then he (or she) will be adopted by myself.
Last night we went to our local PAWS last night after I had stalked their dog listings for days. I had narrowed my choice between two dogs: Carmel, a white/tan sheperd/husky mix, and Dodger, a fawn/tan/red sheperd mix. Going there last night was pretty tough as you've got a bunch of other dogs there just looking at you with the saddest eyes you could ever imagine. I wanted to take almost all of them home! Seeing Carmel was a bit of a disappointment. She wasn't interested in me when I approached her--heck I think she pretty much ignored me! As I walked up to Dodger's spot, he immediately looked at me and begged to me touched, licked my hand and was overall jovial. I spent a few minutes with all of the other dogs but ultimately said I wanted to meet with Carmel and Dodger.
Dodger was first up to meet with my family and I. He immediately went over to all of us and went nuts with face licking, sniffing us, laying on his back for belly rubs and of course licking every nook and cranny on the floor. We then had Carmel come in but she was just not interested in us at all. She wouldn't come to us to be petted, didn't want to be touched and was more interested in standing in front of the door than anything. The only time she did give any attention was when the PAWS volunteer gave us some treats to give to her to try to motivate her attitude a bit more.. But she still wasn't having any of it. I was a bit discerning as I was really hoping to get along with her. This is essentially what made my decision easy.. Dodger was going to be my final choice. I think what really helped was that when my dad went up to his cage, Dodger got on his hind legs and let my Dad ruffle his scruff. My dad has never appeared to be a Dog whisperer of any sorts, so if Dodger can make the ice in my dad's pet heart melt, then this was obviously going to be the one!
So without further ado, Dodger is now a part of my family! :D.
Dodger!
Dodger!
Dodger!
You can also check out my Flickr set to see a few more pictures of him. Obviously more to come over the months (and years!)
Tags: adoption, dodger, dog, paws, pug, puppy
Posted in A look into my life | 13 Comments »
It's been awhile since I made myself my own little Christmas wishlist but there are a few items I have been lusting over for quite some time. This isn't my actual Christmas wishlist to anyone but myself. I try to refrain from asking for big ticket items from my parents as I feel that I should pay for them versus making them buy it for me. I think my last big gift from them was back in 2004 when I was surprised with my own desktop versus having to share the family computer.
Drobo S by Data Robotics - $899
I have had my eye on the Drobo S for quite some time now. I regularly backup to an external Seagate backup drive but it's down to 50GB now, so I've started to backup to a Western Digital 500GB SATA drive that I've got in one of my bay drives in my desktop. While this is feasible, I prefer to backup to an external device that I can easily upgrade to without having to spend more money. Granted, this is an $800 backup solution but given how invaluable the data is that I'm storing it's not a concern for me.
The biggest advantage is being able to toss in any SATA drive into the 5-bay network storage. This version also includes eSATA for connectivity so I wouldn't need to rely on crappy USB 2.0 speeds or fireware (although it still is an option.) No installation required! All I have to do is pop in a drive and I'm done. I don't need to setup any kind of RAID config, format, screws or anything. The Drobo will do it all for me. My other favorite features are the glowing status lights which when more space is available more blue lights are available, the less space there is the less blue lights you'll see and when near full they'll be red. But the best feature is that it is self-healing. If it sees that there is a disk failing, it will automatically start pushing the data to the other remaining disks so you don't lose that data on a disk crash. Perfect redundancy ftw!
X-Files: The Complete Collectors Edition - $175.99
I have been an X-Files fan since the show first aired back in 1993. I remember being so excited for Friday nights to eat Chinese food and watch the X-Files and be completely creeped out by some of the episodes. Heck, some of them are still pretty creepy when I watch them over 10 years later. I used to own seasons 1-4 to grow my collection of them but unfortunately an old roommate of mine had stolen them. I lucked out with these because I bought them for $75 for all four seasons from a discount I had when working at Best Buy. Since then I've yet to replace them or buy physical copies. I have watched them online on streaming websites but it's not the same. This is probably the only physical form of entertainment that I want to own. I need to have this on display AND so I can watch it at anytime without lag or loss of quality. I love me some Duchovney!
Tilt-Head Stand Mixer - Kitchenaid - $399
Here's the domestic in me coming out! The stand mixer I used that belonged to my mom bit the dust a few years ago when the neck snapped so if I use it, I have to stand there and hold it. So I usually resort to getting a large tupperware bowl out along with a handheld mixer and use that when I have recipes that require intense mixing. It's annoying since I have to turn the bowl, hold the mixer and also use a spatula to feed it towards the mixer when it gets spun to the outside of the bowl. I have been dying for a stand mixer for awhile and red happens to be my favorite color. I'm not partial to any stand but this one I loved because you can use attachments with it for putting out pasta, and who knows what other apparatus' to do whatever you need. Now I don't need to hold off on a recipe because I don't have the right tools.
The world's cutest pug
Anyone that knows me knows I have two obsessions: Pugs and Cupcakes. The biggest being with pugs. When I was in the hospital a lot of my little get well items were pug related like "Pugs and Kisses, Get Well!", my life-like 2 foot Pug that sits in my room, a Pug statue, a Pug beanie and more. I've also got pug thank-you cards I found on Etsy, pug stationary, and pug address labels. I've also get a few Pug calendars that I've saved so I can frame them into a little wall display for shiggles. A pug is the one thing I have wanted for years now and will always want a pug until I have one. I love the fawn breeds and would prefer a male puggy versus female.
I've been partially joking and teasing when I ask Steve to get me a pug for Christmas but in reality I know that's not going to happen. I drop my parents hints every chance I get; When I see a grocery list laying around I'll add in "Pug and pug toys" in either of their handwriting to make it look more realistic ;). When I was in the hospital my mom was seemingly serious about getting me a pug around the time I started walking but I've yet to even really see any sort of notion that this would happen so I guess this is one present where I'll have to just settle for trinkets and other oddities in lieu of an actual pug. *sniff*
What's on your Christmas list?
Tags: drobo, mixer, pug, xfiles
Posted in A look into my life | 10 Comments »
Hello Cupcake!
I have strong love for pugs, cupcakes, & my boyfriend. I hail from the southside of Chicago where I am a frontend webdeveloper & a small business owner. Learn more about me.
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